Yanks in Norfolk

Holiday time at the moment and I'm in Norfolk. I was itching to have a go for the Northern Harrier that's been knocking around Thornham, but then a stone's throw from my accommodation loomed the chance of a lifer, American Wigeon. So there I was on Cley's famous East Bank first light on Saturday morning.

Luckily the Wigeon flock were feeding fairly closely and as the light picked up it was fairly easy to pick out this handsome drake. The field also contained a small flock of Dark-bellied Brent Geese and a few Pink-footed Goose.

So, first lifer of the year under the belt before breakfast, but a hearty fry-up meant missing the Northern Harrier fly through Thorham Harbour. Oh dear. I did more than make up for this yesterday however, with spectacular scope views of the Northern Harrier over Thornham Marshes in the morning and later from Titchwell shortly after midday, where it even came over the main path before heading out east.

When you see this harrier well, it certainly is a distinctive bird with its orangey-rusty underparts, dark hood and very dark upperparts. The most distinctive ID feature for this particular Northern Harrier is what my fellow Midlands birders might well term a 'gammy foot', the bird has a damaged foot that dangles down conspicuously in flight. There you go, technical stuff.

Spent a lot of time around Titchwell RSPB on Saturday and Sunday. Now I must mention this new Parrinder Hide. It's awful. From the outside it looks more like an air traffic control centre than a bird watching hide, inside its smart, but completely impractical for birding. The dudes seem to like it, its warm and insulated. The glass window panes slide open using a weird pully system, incidentally most of the types in the hides didnt like them opened!! View is also quite restricted for scope usage, so I soon gave up and set my scope up on the path. Most other birders were also voting with their feet doing the same, which caused a lot of congestion along the path. I wonder if birders were consulted at all in the design process?

Anyway, moan over, the birding at Titchwell was fantastic over the weekend. The long list of highlights as follows; Northern Harrier, Water Pipit, a Whooper Swan feeding with Mutes on the fields left of the access road, a flock of 25-30 Twite feeding on the Brackish Marsh, a few over-wintering Marsh Harriers and a Water Rail.

The sea was good and I managed to pick out the following on a brief seawatch; 1 Slavonian Grebe, 1 Red-necked Grebe, 3 Long-tailed Ducks, 100's of Common Scoter and a few Eider and Goldeneye. The juvenile Iceland Gull flew over the beach on the 8th.

Of course the usual array of waders were in attendance, the best being this Spotted Redshank. Also plenty of Ruff on the islands of the fresh marsh.

Barn Owls seem to be all over the place at the moment and can be encountered frequently along the roadside along the A149. Saw one catch a vole within two feet this morning.

Today was another good day of birding, mostly spent around Holkham and Wells-next-the-Sea. The outstanding highlight were two Rough-legged Buzzards that could be seen over Burnham Overy Staithe dunes at 11:15am. They were rather distant but the light was good and the white tails, light underside and dark carpal and belly patches could be seen. Tried to get a bit closer but they were drifting west (later reported at Scolt Head) so it didn't feel like I was getting any nearer to them. Pleased with the lifer though and if I'm lucky maybe I'll get a better view before I go back to Brum. Other raptors included 2 Common Buzzards, ringtail Hen Harrier, several Marsh Harriers and 2 more Barn Owls.

From Joe Jordan Hide there were many White-fronted Geese, Pink-footed Geese and 2 Grey Partridge. At Wells, there were two redhead Smew on the boating lake by Wells Wood, 2 Red-breasted Mergansers and a few Goldeneye feeding in the harbour and the Black Brant remained with the flock of Dark-bellied Brent Geese on the pitch and putt.